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Rant||An Unpopular Opinion on Marks and Grades

Hello, everyone!

I can already tell you right off the bat that there will be no lovely eye-drawing images for this post (sorry!), this is purely a rant.

If I were to say "Grades shouldn't matter" in a high school, or even worse, a university/college setting, I would probably get death glares and a suggestion to seek mental help. But it's true, grades shouldn't matter.

The objective shouldn't be to get a 4.0 or a 90% average, or whatever it is you're aiming for. Because, that way, every time you fall short in the semester (and trust me, it will happen), all you'll feel is crap, and you'll be mad at yourself.

I think, the way to approach being successful in school is to not worry about the grades, and instead, tell yourself, "I'm here to learn, and I'm here to do it to the best of my ability." I think these two ways of thinking will eventually get you back to the same results, except the latter will contain less stress.

While aiming for that 4.0, doing your best should be something you're already doing. Except, sometimes, "your best" isn't at the numerical value that you're aiming for. Doing your best forces a mindset where you are always striving to improve yourself, where on the other hand, trying to hit a 85% or 90% does not. Once you get that percent average that you wanted, you've put yourself in a position where you can say, "I'm good enough." With the other method, you're constantly asking yourself, "Can I do better?"

To me, the most important part about school is getting something out of it. What's the point of getting a good mark if you've just hitched a ride with someone else, and you yourself are still very confused on the topic?

If you continuously strive to hit a new "best," the grades will eventually come along. At least, that's what I found to work.

3 comments

Totally agree with everything you've said! I also think that exams are a very unfair way of looking at our knowledge of topics - they are basically a memory test, so those with a better memory will score better? I don't think that they completely test your knowledge!

Agree 100%! Well, at least in areas like the social sciences, and biology etc. I think that math courses, or other science courses can test a lot of problem solving skills that were picked up from going through the course.